Georgia reacts to Russian Duma’s Ukraine resolution

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili says Russia’s actions in Crimea are a brutal intervention in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state and calls on the international community to not allow a new conflict to escalate in Europe.

The Georgian president also asks that all means are used to avoid possible aggression and retain Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Margvelashvili issued a statement about the events in Ukraine on Saturday evening after the Russian Duma approved Vladimir Putin’s request to send military forces to the Crimea.

He writes that Russia’s actions like issuing passports in different countries, strengthening military infrastructure and contingent and the decision to protect the interests of ‘compatriots’ in Ukraine by military force, contradicts the founding documents of the UN and the OSCE and endangers Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“It is unacceptable that the fate of states, their future and territorial integrity to be decided by pressure and forceful intervention of a foreign country,” he writes.

Speaker of Parliament Davit Usupashvili also issued a statement writing that the free world was challenged by Russia once again.

“With ignorance of the basic principles of international law, Russia is pursuing military intervention on the territory of a sovereign country – Ukraine,” he says.

“I am confident that in this difficult moment, all political forces in Georgia will act according to the fundamental interests of the country and will support the Ukrainian people, while guaranteeing the security of our own country.”

He also writes that Georgia remains confident that the US, EU and the entire free world, unlike the situation in Georgia in August 2008, will not permit Russian aggression towards its neighbor.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern about Russian actions. The ministry’s statement reads that Russian aggression started the same way in Georgia and ended with difficult results for the country as two of its regions are occupied by Russia and international community is not able to force Russia fulfill international obligations to withdraw troops from Georgia.

The Ministry believes that Russia’s Saturday’s decision puts regional security in danger. It calls for international community to protect sovereignty of Ukraine in other case destabilization may take place in Ukraine, but in whole region too.